Stone Telling's narrative may be seen as a return to the theme of The Dispossessed and The Eye of the Heron, in which a person from an anarchistic society visits an acquisitive government-ruled society and returns.
Le Guin's foreword to the novel notes that her anarchism is closely akin to that of Peter Kropotkin's, whose Mutual Aid closely assessed the influence of the natural world on competition and cooperation.
Ursula K. Le Guin, in the science fiction novel The Dispossessed (1974), contrasted a propertarian society with one that does not recognize property rights.
Over the years she has interviewed Roman Polanski, David Puttnam, Micky Rourke, Sting, Oscar de la Renta, Lech Wałęsa, and other celebrities as well as working with convicted criminals or the dispossessed around the world, particularly in Africa.
Others of the dispossessed Clan had joined with Clan Dugall Craignish and some went to Perthshire and joined with the MacGregors, leading to an ill-informed present-day claim that MacInnes is a Sept of MacGregor.
Beginning from the strategically sited castle of Domfront, the dispossessed count Henry, youngest son of William the Conqueror, rallied support among local lords and eventually ruled the Anglo-Norman dominions as Henry I of England.